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Graphic images of utter devastation from the EF-5 tornado that slammed into Moore, Okla., are a stark reminder of the power of cyclonic storms in the Great Plains to destroy virtually all above-ground structures that lie in their path.

They should also be a warning of the folly of building a federal research lab handling the most dangerous pathogens on earth in the heart of Tornado Alley. And yet that is exactly what the Department of Homeland Security is planning to do in Manhattan, Kan., which in 2008 was struck by an EF-4 tornado similar to the one that leveled Moore, Okla.

The decision of the DHS to build the National Bio-and Agro-Defense Facility, or NBAF, in Manhattan, Kan., is a classic example of politics trumping safety and the lengths that state officials and members of Congress will go to secure a billion-dollar federal project in times of economic hardship. Designed to replace the aging Plum Island lab on Long Island, the NBAF will conduct research in maximum containment labs on pathogens that represent a grave threat to humans and livestock, whether from terrorist attacks or natural outbreaks.

The decision to build the NBAF in Kansas was the result of a two-year site selection process in which 28 sites in 11 states were evaluated by federal officials. I chaired the consortium of San Antonio research institutions that competed for the site selection. The single most important criterion in the selection process was safety and the risk of a catastrophic event resulting in the accidental release of deadly pathogens. The fear of such a scenario was so great that heated public opposition caused many of the proposed sites to be withdrawn from consideration. In the end, the Kansas site was chosen in the waning hours of the Bush administration and soon afterward endorsed by the Obama administration.

To this day, supporters of building the NBAF in Kansas insist that it will be designed to withstand even a direct hit from a tornado. That assertion is simply belied by the written design analysis of the project's own architects and engineers and by an independent risk analysis ordered by Congress after the selection of the Kansas site. In fact, the NBAF was designed to withstand wind forces that do not exceed 90 mph. An EF-4 tornado packs winds of 207 to 260 mph. Buried deep in the several-hundred page long risk assessment conducted by the DHS of the five “finalists” sites (which included San Antonio) was a finding that the NBAF was not designed to withstand a tornado and was at risk of a structural collapse if subjected to wind forces in excess of 150 mph.

Proponents of the Kansas site blandly insist that the NBAF has been redesigned to withstand a tornado. The images of destruction from Oklahoma suggest that unless the entire 500,000-square-foot facility is built underground, at a cost running into the billions, it could not withstand even an EF-3 tornado. Building it in Kansas is the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with Mother Nature.

John Kerr is a board member and former president of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute.